Walmart Warehouse Workers Fight for the Future of Work

(Photo: Peoples World / Flickr)Workers responsible for moving an estimated $1 trillion worth of goods a year through the global economy are paid low wages, often denied breaks and basic protective gear, and are employed primarily through temp agencies.

Outside the largest Walmart distribution center in the country, moving the products of the world's largest private employer, a group of striking workers are asking for small changes they say will make an immeasurable difference to their working conditions. Warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois, have been on strike for more than two weeks, calling for the subcontractors that employ them on behalf of Walmart to provide shin pads and dust masks - and to listen to their grievances around working conditions.

Early this week, workers forced the warehouse to close early after more than 200 people rallied around the suburban distribution center. A planned civil disobedience action took a surprising turn for many of the assembled protesters when riot police equipped with a sound cannon came to arrest the 17 clergy and warehouse workers blocking a road near the distribution center.

"The whole warehouse industry is built on temp poverty jobs. Every day, workers tell their sad story of getting ripped off in these warehouses, of sexual discrimination, of racial discrimination," said Father Raymond Lescher, priest at Sacred Heart Church in Joliet, Illinois, and a member of the Warehouse Workers for Justice Board. "We've tried to work with politicians at the county, state and local level, but we haven't gotten to first base. So, we said we've got to escalate this."

"If you didn't make it yourself, it probably came through one of these warehouses," says Leah Fried, an organizer with Warehouse Workers for Justice. Fried told Labor Notes that the Elwood location is the largest warehouse by far - 70 percent of imported products that Walmart sells make their way through its doors.

Chris Tucker, a 22-year-old resident of the neighboring suburb of Joliet, pays more than half of the income he earns as a warehouse worker on rent. With only $1300 dollars a month coming in from his job, the $850 a month to keep a roof over his head "isn't going to cut it" for a living wage, said Tucker.

But that is only one of the reasons Tucker joined 29 other workers in walking off the job on September 15. He also says that the lack of dust masks isn't good for his lungs, working without shin pads leaves him and others with constant bruises, and the lack of breaks during work makes the conditions dangerous.

A class action lawsuit filed by California Walmart warehouse workers against Schneider Logistics sheds light on the role that contractors play, showing that they set payment rates and, in the case of Schneider, set work quotas for the warehouse.

Bonnie Borman worked with Sensata for more than 20 years in Freeport, Illinois, as a production technician. Now she's not sure what she'll do next. "All that's left here is just minimum-wage, low-paying jobs that you can't support a family on," said Borman, who has already begun training her Chinese replacement. At her current job she makes $15 an hour, a wage she is worried she won't be able to find wherever she goes to work next. "I'm kind of in that limbo place where I keep thinking: What am I going to do?"

(Photo: Yana Kunichoff)

The world's biggest private employer isn't very appealing to Borman, she said.

It took Jerome Synowicz, a Walmart worker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, eight years to move his salary from $7 an hour to his current $12. "They get you a check and it's nothing. It's very hard to make it go around," he said.

Jesse Menendez is the host of Vocalo on Chicago Public Radio's WBEZ. He is also host of The Music Vox on Vocalo radio, which airs Monday-Friday from 6 PM-8 PM Central, and Live From Studio 10, which airs every Wednesday at 8 PM Central.

Yana Kunichoff is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary producer based in Chicago. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Fusion.net, Al Jazeera, Pacific Standard and Chicago Magazine.

Walmart Warehouse Workers Fight for the Future of Work

(Photo: Peoples World / Flickr)Workers responsible for moving an estimated $1 trillion worth of goods a year through the global economy are paid low wages, often denied breaks and basic protective gear, and are employed primarily through temp agencies.

Outside the largest Walmart distribution center in the country, moving the products of the world's largest private employer, a group of striking workers are asking for small changes they say will make an immeasurable difference to their working conditions. Warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois, have been on strike for more than two weeks, calling for the subcontractors that employ them on behalf of Walmart to provide shin pads and dust masks - and to listen to their grievances around working conditions.

Early this week, workers forced the warehouse to close early after more than 200 people rallied around the suburban distribution center. A planned civil disobedience action took a surprising turn for many of the assembled protesters when riot police equipped with a sound cannon came to arrest the 17 clergy and warehouse workers blocking a road near the distribution center.

"The whole warehouse industry is built on temp poverty jobs. Every day, workers tell their sad story of getting ripped off in these warehouses, of sexual discrimination, of racial discrimination," said Father Raymond Lescher, priest at Sacred Heart Church in Joliet, Illinois, and a member of the Warehouse Workers for Justice Board. "We've tried to work with politicians at the county, state and local level, but we haven't gotten to first base. So, we said we've got to escalate this."

"If you didn't make it yourself, it probably came through one of these warehouses," says Leah Fried, an organizer with Warehouse Workers for Justice. Fried told Labor Notes that the Elwood location is the largest warehouse by far - 70 percent of imported products that Walmart sells make their way through its doors.

Chris Tucker, a 22-year-old resident of the neighboring suburb of Joliet, pays more than half of the income he earns as a warehouse worker on rent. With only $1300 dollars a month coming in from his job, the $850 a month to keep a roof over his head "isn't going to cut it" for a living wage, said Tucker.

But that is only one of the reasons Tucker joined 29 other workers in walking off the job on September 15. He also says that the lack of dust masks isn't good for his lungs, working without shin pads leaves him and others with constant bruises, and the lack of breaks during work makes the conditions dangerous.

A class action lawsuit filed by California Walmart warehouse workers against Schneider Logistics sheds light on the role that contractors play, showing that they set payment rates and, in the case of Schneider, set work quotas for the warehouse.

Bonnie Borman worked with Sensata for more than 20 years in Freeport, Illinois, as a production technician. Now she's not sure what she'll do next. "All that's left here is just minimum-wage, low-paying jobs that you can't support a family on," said Borman, who has already begun training her Chinese replacement. At her current job she makes $15 an hour, a wage she is worried she won't be able to find wherever she goes to work next. "I'm kind of in that limbo place where I keep thinking: What am I going to do?"

(Photo: Yana Kunichoff)

The world's biggest private employer isn't very appealing to Borman, she said.

It took Jerome Synowicz, a Walmart worker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, eight years to move his salary from $7 an hour to his current $12. "They get you a check and it's nothing. It's very hard to make it go around," he said.

Jesse Menendez is the host of Vocalo on Chicago Public Radio's WBEZ. He is also host of The Music Vox on Vocalo radio, which airs Monday-Friday from 6 PM-8 PM Central, and Live From Studio 10, which airs every Wednesday at 8 PM Central.

Yana Kunichoff is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary producer based in Chicago. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Fusion.net, Al Jazeera, Pacific Standard and Chicago Magazine.